The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1887-06-17

1t is n pleasure to walk up Broadway
from Chambers to Blocker street any
bright afternoon from $50 to o'clock.
Nearly every one of the big buildings
within those limits has factories on
every floor. where hundreds and
thousands of girls are employed in
making clothing, underwear, neckties,
cloaks, fancy boxes, and other articles
of luxury and necessity. Pretty much
all of them are between the ages Of IA
and 20. BY the time they are 20 they
are either married OF swept away, no
one knows where. Most of these
factories close at $3.50, and the girls
hurry on their wraps and start for
home, and great numbers of them live
in Brooklyn and New Jersey, where
board and lodging is, much cheaper
than in New York, and so they walk
down Broadway to the ferries. They
are as handsome a set of girls as can
be found anywhere. Like nearly all
American women they have the knack
of dressing becomingly, and their trim
and shapely figures are shown off to
good advantage. They do not look
discontinued, If bright and cheerful
faces are any criterion, and they chat
ter merrily rs they pass along two or
three at time. They have the indie
pendent bearing of girls who know they
can earn their own living, and are not
dependent on any man for support.
Some of the prettiest are accompanied
by young men-perhaps some of the
clerks who have taken fancy to them.
Nearly all of them have been pupils in
the public schools. They read the
newspapers and can talk cleverly. A
vast amount of rot is printed about
them, but in point of fact they are as
jolly and contented lot of young
women as can be found elsewhere in
the world. There is great cutlery on
the part of theatrical, short-haircd, and
atmospheric philanthrOpists, at times,
because factory and shop girls do not
give up their employment and seek
homes as servants in uptown families.
The girl knows what she is about. The
bedraggled maid of all work, nagged
by silly mistress, abused by herd
of snappy children, and saddled with
a thousand cares, has one night out a
week, when she has an opportunity to
be courted by the coachman or the
hostlcr. The working-girl is her own
mistress absolutely from the time she
leaves the factory at O'clock in the even
ing until she returns at the following
morning. Her independence is abso-
lutte, and during her hours of freedom
she is as much lady as the wife of the
President. She visits her friends, and
receives the calls of men who are by
no means to be despised in the matri-
monial market. A great and welcome
change has come over public opinion
respecting women who have the
courage, faith, and energy to go out in
the world and make themselves the
arbiters of their own future instead of
moping at home, a burden to their
friends and trial to their relatives.
That workingwomen command in
many instances the highest respect can
not be denied by any man who has an
intimate knowledge of New York life.
There are ladies of high culture,
finished accomplishments, and many
graces of mind and person in the
boarding-houses of New York who are
the popular leaders of little social circles
despite the fact that they are employed
during the day. There are grades of
labor, and women have learned to
look the world in the face and fight for
the best fields. -Neao York. Letter.